COWBOY

He strides the rallying halls
Waving huge cowboy fedora
Leather bindings
Clear beige color

Salutes the crowd
Well wishers in Billings, Montana

Bush delivers the lies of love for soldiers
Wallowing in the horror, muck
Debris, destruction and death

Yet beneath the lovely cheers
The raised joyous hands and fists

A photograph hidden in a crumpled newspaper
Shows the flag concealing
Coffin of dead Billings’ son

Brought home for burial
While Bush declares
Democracy for Iraq

Back in Iraq
Bechtel, engineering giant
Is departing
No more reconstruction -
Of sewage and water and power stations

In taxes we gave Bechtel nearly three billion
They are fleeing
Death of employees

Iraqi people remain in untreated sewage --
The police academy built with more billions
Of American taxes
Has urine and feces dripping from the ceiling

We here in America
Wallow in the death-dealing lies
Of victory and freedom in Iraq